{"status":true,"msg":{"data":{"id":39731,"auction_id":59,"set_id":87,"lot_number":"144","artist":"Elmer Borlongan (b. 1967)","title":"Mega Touch","starting_price":800000,"signed_dated":"signed and dated 2009 (lower left)","medium":"oil on canvas","size":"36” x 36” (91 cm x 91 cm)","property":null,"coa":null,"provenance":"Private Collection, Manila","exhibited":null,"literature":null,"write_up":"One who has always cast his gaze on the travails and joys of ordinary Filipinos, Elmer Borlongan can be described as one of the most sensitive chroniclers of everyday life, depicting scenarios and events that we may normally miss as we keep up with the pace of modernity.  His paintings allow  us to pause on our tracks and witness his tender vision of the world unfold right before our eyes  — a place where happiness is palpable and electric and human hope takes shape in the most quiet of gestures.\nSuch quality is what we see in this work, in which a blind masseuse presses the tired muscles  of a man who has carefully draped his shirt on the back of a chair.  Evidently, he finds release  and satisfaction with the massage, his eyes closed and his mouth slightly parted.  Whatever worry  or disappointment that has besieged him during the day falls away at the moment of contact.  While therapeutic massage is made possible by a financial transaction, here it seems to be offered  as a gift: one person alleviating another.      \nOne of the founders of Salingpusa (the group of artists who came of age in the late ‘80s  popularizing large format and injecting social awareness into their works), Borlongan has gone  far and wide, establishing himself as a mid-career artist of significance.  That he has not lost  touch in depicting the poor and the marginalized with dignity and warmth despite his success  is commendable. With their round foreheads and steep jawlines, his figures — some of the most iconic in Philippine visual arts — continue to embody the life, dream, and aspiration of the Filipino everyman.","lot_group":"PAINTING","lot_details_html":"<p><strong>Elmer Borlongan</strong> (b.1967)<br /><em>Mega Touch</em><br />signed and dated 2009 (lower left)<br />oil on canvas<br />36&rdquo; x 36&rdquo; (91 cm x 91 cm)</p>","alias":null,"hp":2400000,"bp":0.168,"isWithdrawn":0,"accounting_hp":2400000,"userBid":5926,"isPaid":0,"userId":22,"lot_status":"SOLD","isDone":1,"bid_history_id":null,"reserve_price":null,"hammer_price":2803200,"fav":0},"image":[{"id":38109,"img_url":"https://leongallery.sgp1.digitaloceanspaces.com/v2/auction/59/87/lot/144.jpg","isFeatured":1}]},"increment":[2200000,2400000,2600000,2800000,3000000,3200000,3400000,3600000,3800000,4000000,4200000,4400000,4600000,4800000,5000000,5500000,6000000,6500000,7000000,7500000,8000000,8500000,9000000,9500000,10000000,11000000,12000000,13000000,14000000,15000000,16000000,17000000,18000000,19000000,20000000],"prev":143,"next":145,"count_bid":0,"bid_history":[],"tokenExpired":1}